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We screwed up. Big time.
I was scrolling through my news feed today and I noticed yet another story of today's students now having record low math scores. Now, I've done my fair share of harrumphing about "the youths." I'm very guilty of it. "Well, if these darn kids got off their TikToks, they'd see so much better alternatives!" And other such things. For the longest time, I had only a little sympathy, but it dawned on me much later than it should have how much we as the adults in general utterly failed you.
2020 was a bad time for everyone, but it probably hit parents and, by direct extension, kids the most. But that wasn't all, was it. Nonono, there was so much more. You went to school to see many, if not all of the teachers too stressed by all the coursework they need to get you through to care about you specifically, and then you went home to see parents who were too stressed trying to make a living to care about you. That is, assuming that your parents were even there at all. So what are you given? Well, you're given an iPhone or tablet with TikTok and Instagram loaded onto it to keep you quiet. And the school laptops you're given? Only the best locked down chromebooks from China. Windows? Ha! You didn't even get Windows 11, as bad as it is. As far as you're concerned, Windows 11 might as well be Linux.
On top of all the terrible education, math is particularly awful because it's taught in the US almost literally the worst way possible. English? "In The Scarlet Letter, on page 59, what did so and so say to the chicken who crossed the road?" Hell, I'm already falling asleep. Music and Art classes? Probably gone. Gym? Dodgeball and Capture the Flag if you're lucky. (Although admittedly, those games were pretty cool.) Lunch? Incredibly basic sandwiches with salad. Maybe some utterly tasteless spaghetti. But that's assuming your parents even paid for your lunch. History? "At what exact date did George Washington cross the Amazon to tame King Kong?" You get the idea.
And how about the other students? Some may be even more messed up than you are. Some are into some shady crap which you may or may not be tempted to get involved in yourself in order to find some escape. Then you got all this LGBTQ stuff going around which may or may not be actually relevant to you, but it seems the only way to get attention at all is to be part of the LGBTQ rainbow, so... "Dad, I'm gay." Now with that said, I do NOT mean to disparage people who are actually going through some legitimate LGBTQ-related problems, but the very sad fact remains that even though you may not actually be LGBTQ, you are probably so starved of people caring about you that you may truly believe for whatever reason that you need to join that clique to be happy, or maybe not even be happy, but just to have some kind of attention.
And gaming? Well, in the AAA space, gone are the days of Halo 3 and Unreal Tournament and Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind and Burnout 3. Now we mostly only get live-service games filled with microtransactions but still require a formerly $60, but nowadays $70 entry fee. But all your friends are playing these games and no one has ever once gave you any alternatives whatsoever, so what are you gonna do?
And finally, social media. And once again, nobody ever told you about alternatives. We barely even taught you how to use an iPhone. How are you supposed to know that the internet is a vast place with tons of sites and communities? And even if you did know about them, you probably don't know how to access them, and even if you did, the common human thinking of "Well, if the alternative is so great, why isn't everyone using it?" pops into your head, so you don't pay them any attention.
We messed up massively. We really did.
And maybe even after all that, I still got it wrong. Maybe this whole essay of mine is going to come off much more as "How do you do, fellow kids?" than anything. Or maybe no Gen. Z'ers even read this at all. Still though, I wanted to put this out there and get my thoughts down on this.
In summary, you were born into a crap world, and you're going to inherit an even worse one, and it's our fault. And the problem IS fixable. But it will require multiple things and it will take a long time. In the meantime, you'll have to pull yourself up by your bootstraps. No, it's not fair to you that you have to pretty much raise yourself, but it's the only option right now.
Instead of signing off on such a depressing note, I instead want to offer some encouragement and hope. There ARE good people out there in the world. True love does exist. You are valuable. And it certainly doesn't seem like that right now. I get it. It seems cheesy as hell to say, but you have to believe me. It's true. There's a lot of terrible things in this world. I know all about them. I've seen the worst conditions imaginable. But I've also seen so many amazing things in this world. I hope that you're able to see them, if not now, then perhaps someday...
Until then, I'm personally going to start having a more understanding outlook regarding you guys and I'm going to try being more helpful and less judgemental. Just remember what I said. Remember to grow as a person. Remember that you are valuable. And be kind to yourself. That is all.
I was scrolling through my news feed today and I noticed yet another story of today's students now having record low math scores. Now, I've done my fair share of harrumphing about "the youths." I'm very guilty of it. "Well, if these darn kids got off their TikToks, they'd see so much better alternatives!" And other such things. For the longest time, I had only a little sympathy, but it dawned on me much later than it should have how much we as the adults in general utterly failed you.
2020 was a bad time for everyone, but it probably hit parents and, by direct extension, kids the most. But that wasn't all, was it. Nonono, there was so much more. You went to school to see many, if not all of the teachers too stressed by all the coursework they need to get you through to care about you specifically, and then you went home to see parents who were too stressed trying to make a living to care about you. That is, assuming that your parents were even there at all. So what are you given? Well, you're given an iPhone or tablet with TikTok and Instagram loaded onto it to keep you quiet. And the school laptops you're given? Only the best locked down chromebooks from China. Windows? Ha! You didn't even get Windows 11, as bad as it is. As far as you're concerned, Windows 11 might as well be Linux.
On top of all the terrible education, math is particularly awful because it's taught in the US almost literally the worst way possible. English? "In The Scarlet Letter, on page 59, what did so and so say to the chicken who crossed the road?" Hell, I'm already falling asleep. Music and Art classes? Probably gone. Gym? Dodgeball and Capture the Flag if you're lucky. (Although admittedly, those games were pretty cool.) Lunch? Incredibly basic sandwiches with salad. Maybe some utterly tasteless spaghetti. But that's assuming your parents even paid for your lunch. History? "At what exact date did George Washington cross the Amazon to tame King Kong?" You get the idea.
And how about the other students? Some may be even more messed up than you are. Some are into some shady crap which you may or may not be tempted to get involved in yourself in order to find some escape. Then you got all this LGBTQ stuff going around which may or may not be actually relevant to you, but it seems the only way to get attention at all is to be part of the LGBTQ rainbow, so... "Dad, I'm gay." Now with that said, I do NOT mean to disparage people who are actually going through some legitimate LGBTQ-related problems, but the very sad fact remains that even though you may not actually be LGBTQ, you are probably so starved of people caring about you that you may truly believe for whatever reason that you need to join that clique to be happy, or maybe not even be happy, but just to have some kind of attention.
And gaming? Well, in the AAA space, gone are the days of Halo 3 and Unreal Tournament and Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind and Burnout 3. Now we mostly only get live-service games filled with microtransactions but still require a formerly $60, but nowadays $70 entry fee. But all your friends are playing these games and no one has ever once gave you any alternatives whatsoever, so what are you gonna do?
And finally, social media. And once again, nobody ever told you about alternatives. We barely even taught you how to use an iPhone. How are you supposed to know that the internet is a vast place with tons of sites and communities? And even if you did know about them, you probably don't know how to access them, and even if you did, the common human thinking of "Well, if the alternative is so great, why isn't everyone using it?" pops into your head, so you don't pay them any attention.
We messed up massively. We really did.
And maybe even after all that, I still got it wrong. Maybe this whole essay of mine is going to come off much more as "How do you do, fellow kids?" than anything. Or maybe no Gen. Z'ers even read this at all. Still though, I wanted to put this out there and get my thoughts down on this.
In summary, you were born into a crap world, and you're going to inherit an even worse one, and it's our fault. And the problem IS fixable. But it will require multiple things and it will take a long time. In the meantime, you'll have to pull yourself up by your bootstraps. No, it's not fair to you that you have to pretty much raise yourself, but it's the only option right now.
Instead of signing off on such a depressing note, I instead want to offer some encouragement and hope. There ARE good people out there in the world. True love does exist. You are valuable. And it certainly doesn't seem like that right now. I get it. It seems cheesy as hell to say, but you have to believe me. It's true. There's a lot of terrible things in this world. I know all about them. I've seen the worst conditions imaginable. But I've also seen so many amazing things in this world. I hope that you're able to see them, if not now, then perhaps someday...
Until then, I'm personally going to start having a more understanding outlook regarding you guys and I'm going to try being more helpful and less judgemental. Just remember what I said. Remember to grow as a person. Remember that you are valuable. And be kind to yourself. That is all.
